From within the whirlpool of shadows, Junpei’s upper body emerged, and the air around him changed.
The ferocious waves and the swarm of shikigami alike fell silent, as if they had all been swallowed by the eye of the storm.
“Yoshino...?”
“Yoshino!”
Even the jujutsushi whose plans had gone to hell,
and Dagon, who had been chasing the fleeing jujutsushi,
held their breath and stared at the sight before them.
Before long, the writhing hole of shadow closed, and Junpei’s body slipped out completely.
He trudged over to the tense group and turned his head, intent on figuring out what was going on.
He only had to sweep his eyes over the unfamiliar scene for a moment before he took in the jujutsushi’s condition and laughed savagely.
“I’m not too late, am I?”
Megumi was bleeding from the nose and drenched in sweat.
Nanami’s left eye had been torn out.
Maki had scratches all over her body.
After checking the injuries of the familiar faces, he smiled for some reason. A look mixed with anger and exhilaration.
It was confidence in victory, and faith in his own power. He had the strength to overturn a disadvantage by himself.
Sensing the meaning behind it, the jujutsushi’s expressions gradually brightened.
“It’s not what we planned, but even better...”
Good.
With this lineup, we can make it work!
Having reached that conclusion, the jujutsushi turned back to face Dagon once more.
“Yoshino Junpei...!”
Only now, as if he had finally recognized the intruder, Dagon’s body trembled.
The enemy he had targeted ever since he came to Shibuya had walked right into his hands.
He had waited for this moment, and yet for some reason, what he felt now was closer to anxiety than delight.
“You know me?”
“I’ve been waiting for you. To avenge Hanami with my own hands.”
“Hanami? Ah, yeah, there was some guy like that.”
I don’t really remember.
Junpei’s answer was so unnervingly lively that an explosive aura burst out of Dagon’s body.
“We have names!”
“Sure. I’m sure you do. Whether I remember them is a different matter.”
That seemed to be the final blow, because seals immediately formed in Dagon’s hands.
Saruruyonggun.
Even without a sure-hit effect, the sheer volume of attacks covered every inch in front of him and crashed down on Junpei.
KWA-KA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM!
A finishing blow unleashed with the intent to kill his enemy in one strike.
It was an attack of excellent power and speed, but—
“[Aureole Basin].”
It never reached Junpei.
Mounted on the carp he had summoned at some point, Junpei vanished from Dagon’s sight in an instant.
‘Fast...!’
Having lost track of Junpei, Dagon immediately spread a water barrier around himself.
A defensive shift in preparation for the counterattack to come.
His judgment was quick, but in the end, it couldn’t be called a good one.
KAGAGAGANG!!
Junpei’s sword, covered in Black Scale, collided with the water barrier and gave off a grinding shriek.
For a brief moment Dagon tensed at the unusual repulsive force, and then Junpei’s blade, having cut through the stream with its signature slicing power, flashed coldly.
KWA-JIK!
A hideous sword wound split Dagon’s upper body, and blood sprayed out.
It was the first serious injury he had suffered since the battle began, and Dagon’s brow furrowed.
“Ghk...!”
“Everyone, move in!”
The moment Dagon, who had stood firm ever since deploying his domain, took his first step back.
The jujutsushi rushed him as one.
Having already healed their smaller injuries with the deer shikigami Megumi had summoned, they were in top condition, if not quite as fresh as at the start.
“I’ll devour you—”
Just as Dagon tried to summon another swarm of shikigami, a severe wave of dizziness struck him.
The black spots that had sprouted all over his body were eating away at him, interfering with his control over cursed energy.
Junpei’s sword pierced Dagon’s abdomen as he grabbed his trembling arm and formed another seal.
Thud!
“Kuh...!”
“You die here.”
And then you’ll forget all about it.
Curse like you lot have no right to live at all.
With Junpei’s sneering face the last thing reflected in his vision, Dagon’s world turned upside down.
---------------------------------
Three first-grade jujutsushi. Two jujutsushi of comparable skill.
And a special-grade cursed spirit.
BAM!
The battle that had been even just moments ago, or tilted to one side, had already reversed.
What unfolded was a one-sided beating.
Dagon’s body, which had seemed impossible to break no matter how much they struck it, was now being crushed and flung in every direction.
‘Why?’
“You really ought to become a Zenin! Come on, bring your whole body over and I’ll give you whatever you want!”
“I’m not interested, you old geezer!”
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Naobito’s accelerated, rough punches slammed into Dagon’s face.
As Dagon was sent flying backward, Maki’s bo staff was already waiting to meet him.
“Nice pass!”
THUD!
The viciously flying nunchaku smashed into Dagon’s neck and drove him into the sand.
Trying to endure it with his natural regeneration and get back up to counterattack Maki, Dagon had poison thorns driven into both eyes.
Thud! Thud!
“Aaaaaagh!”
The agony of poison being injected directly into his eyes.
In the horrific sensation, as if hydrochloric acid had been poured straight into his brain, Dagon thrashed about, and in that gap Nanami and Junpei’s swords joined in and severed both of Dagon’s arms.
Slash!
Ordinarily, Nanami alone would not have been able to pierce Dagon’s tough skin and produce this level of damage.
But the Black Scale laid over Nanami’s sword made it possible.
The dull, unavoidable slash granted by the 7:3 technique had evolved one step further here with outside help.
‘Why? Why, damn it!’
Rolling across the ground under the merciless rain of violence, Dagon screamed.
He had to taste, with every inch of his body, the humiliation that should only have come during his shikigami days.
The overwhelming sense of omnipotence he had felt after becoming an adult was already long gone from his grasp.
‘I’ve gotten this strong, so why can’t I land a single hit?!’
The human who killed Hanami was right there.
He had to avenge him.
He was so furious at his own helplessness he could grind his teeth to dust.
‘It’s all... all because of you! Yoshino Junpei!’
Everything had gone wrong the moment Yoshino Junpei joined the fight.
Now that the black-haired boy’s domain was neutralizing the sure-hit effect, Dagon’s shikigami could not keep up with the speed of [Aureole Basin].
Not even the bearded man, who had lost his right arm and become even slower.
Not even the woman with glasses, whom he had dismissed as weak, had suddenly turned the tide after obtaining a new weapon.
PAPAPAPAT!
“[Moonlit Wave]!”
The biggest problem was the gap between him and Yoshino Junpei. Whatever Junpei had picked up along the way, his control over cursed energy had become so delicate it was beyond comparison with before.
Junpei’s masterful handling of shikigami, as he toyed with Dagon like a maestro on the battlefield, was nothing short of a war conductor’s performance.
All the biting-type shikigami failed to pierce Junpei’s Black Scale armor. Even when Dagon tried to whip them around for a counterattack, they were simply knocked away by Junpei’s [Moonlit Wave] and kept circling in the air.
“[Bullet].”
Pyu-pyu-pyup!
Junpei’s irritating long-range attack, which had just knocked aside Dagon’s eel shikigami, pinned Dagon to the ground like a target.
No matter how many times he cut away the poison accumulating on his body, every new attack allowed that alien cursed energy to invade him again.
Each time, Dagon had to grit his teeth through a pain and confusion like flesh being torn off alive.
Now that the roles of predator and prey had been reversed, he was clearly the weaker one.
Realizing that fact, Dagon was suddenly seized by an unbearable surge of emotion.
‘Me? The weak one? Me?’
Gojo Satoru, the biggest obstacle, had already been sealed.
If he only won here, the age of curses would soon arrive, and he and his comrades would all be able to stand tall as beings beyond humanity.
So why was he here, getting beaten, rolling in the sand and swallowing dirt?
It made no sense. He refused to accept it.
Even if my weakness is the root of all this...
I cannot possibly tolerate Yoshino Junpei looking down at me from above, as if mocking me.
“Yoshino Junpeeeeeee!!! You and you alone!!!! You and you alone!!!!!!”
As Dagon roared, his form changed and spray burst in every direction.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“What the hell is this!”
“The whole domain...!”
From the once-calm sea, ferocious waves surged forth,
and a tremendous gale shook the ground beneath their feet.
Trees were ripped out, sand flew and was shaved away, and the domain Dagon had created no longer resembled a peaceful resort at all.
At this moment, Dagon swore upon his cursed energy.
Even if he died here, he would drag Junpei down with him no matter what. That desperate resolve became a binding vow.
Because of that vow, Dagon’s entire domain convulsed and evolved into a new form.
“Cough!”
“Megumi!”
“Damn it, the domain...!”
Unable to withstand the pressure any longer, Megumi coughed up blood and collapsed.
With that, Megumi’s domain was also dismissed, and the sure-hit effect was once again granted within Dagon’s domain.
But Dagon was so focused on the opponent before him that he no longer even registered it.
Compassion no longer exists.
For the human who defied nature, divine punishment has come.
Ultimate Technique—
Dragon Prison
KUUOOOOOOO
The strongest of the horseshoe crab shikigami Dagon could summon emerged one by one from the sea and rose on a waterspout.
The countless fish shikigami, including Dagon himself, gathered in overwhelming numbers and became a single tornado, which then hurled itself at Junpei.
The attack of a special-grade cursed spirit, one that abandoned defense and even threw away its own life.
If it hit, death was almost certain.
“If it hits, that is.”
“...What?”
Just before the tornado struck Junpei, Dagon, drunk on the victory about to come, failed to notice it.
The enormous maw opened behind Junpei as he formed his seals.
KWA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM!!!
“J-Junpei!”
Dagon’s ultimate technique swept through the spot where Junpei had been standing.
The jujutsushi nearby were also helplessly caught in the aftermath and flung in every direction.
At the monstrous force that shook the entire domain, Dagon smiled in satisfaction.
It had been an attack aimed at only one person, and if the scraps caught in the blast had been reduced to that state, then what of the actual target?
He was surely dead...
“That was close.”
“?!!”
Junpei stood there unharmed in the place where the storm had passed.
He was sweating a little, but there wasn’t a single wound on his body.
At that utterly calm sight, Dagon ground his teeth.
How.
How did he survive?
“If that won’t do it, then I’ll just do it again...!”
“No, you won’t.”
The world in front of Dagon went dark as he prepared to attack again.
Not figuratively, but literally.
“[Pointing Lamp Jaw].”
-------------------------------------
22:24.
A road somewhere in Shibuya.
Twitch...
Someone’s body stirred.
Though weaker than before...
The rampage of the vengeful spirit was not over yet.
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